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REMARKS 



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HON. JOHN B. HASKIN, 



OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NEW YORK, 



IN REPLY TO ATTACK MADE BT 



TOE PRESIDENT'S HOME ORGAN, '^E CONSTITUTION," 



A.ISrTI-LEOQ]5^:PTOJSr DEMOCRA^TS, 



COLLOQUY 



MR. LOGAN, OF ILLINOIS, AND MR. HASKIN. 



DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, DECEMBER, I8o9. 



WASHINGTON : 

THOMAS MoGILL, PRINTER 

1859. 



/ // 

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I 
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^ REMARKS. 



^. 



The House Laving umler consideration the resolution inti-oduced by Mr. Clark, of 
Missouri — 

Mr. HASKIN rose and said : 

Mr. Clerk : I rise to a personal explanation, and, in order to be as brief 
possible, I have committed wh'at I desire to say to writing. It was not 
my intention to take part in any debate which might arise upon ihis floor 
previous to the organization of the House, and I would not do so now, 
were it not for a grossly libelous attack upon me in the home organ of the 
President on Saturday last. It is not my custom, upon this floor or else- 
where, to notice little things, ^ but, as rumor has accorded to the President 
and his Attorney General Black the editorial management of the Consti- 
tution, concealing themselves by the temporary employment of a hireling 
writer named Browne — not a relative of Ossawatomie Brown, for, though 
a madman, a fanatic, and a traitor, yet he was a truthful and brave man, 
I feel that the high authority which supervised and justified the attack 
made, in the article to Avhich I have alluded, upon the eight anti-Le- 
compton Democrats of this House, including myself, warrants me in 
noticing it at this time and in this place. It is unnecessary for me to 
allude to either President Buchanan or Attorney General Black, as 
their character is well known to the country ; but let me say in relation 
to this man Browne, who is, I am informed, an alien originally from Eng- 
land, but lately imported into this city by Mr. Buchanan to grind the 
music from his dolorous organ, that he was previously employed as a 
penny-a-liner in the city of New York upon the Journal of Commerce, a 
newspaper started by Lewis Tappan and the original Abolitionists, and 
which was persuaded to support this Administration by its patronage and 
the patronage lavished upon it by the merchants who are engaged in the 
southern trade. During the campaign of 1858, he was induced, as I have 
eason to believe, by a prominent United States official in the city of New 
York, to take the stump in opposition to my re-election, and I well recollect 
that he made a speech in the town of Morrisania, which was reported in 
zxtenso in one of the New York Administration organs, and the eff'ect of 
which was to assist to give me two hundred and four majority in that town, 
in old Democratic town, which regularly gives a majority to any reputable 
candidate standing upon the Democratic platform. I am confident, sir, 
hhat, if he had spoken in the other towns of Westchester county, the re- 
iult would have been an increased majority for me in each and all of them. 
:t is a fact, recognized throughout the country, that whilst this paper, the 
Constitution, is the home organ of the President, the New York Herald is 
vlr. Buchanan's personal exponent. 

For the Herald, I can say that, as a newspaper, it has been conducted 
rith an amount of energy and ability which may easily be appreciated by 
1,11 the members of this House, if they will call to mind the fact that since 
he Clerk called the roll, the foreshadowings of the Herald as to the policy 
be pursued by Administration members have been stwtly accurate. 



It was that paper that introduced to tho notice of the House and country 
the names of the Republican members who, by their signatures, recom- 
mended the circulation of the compend of the Helper book. It sounded 
the key-note of the opposition, which commenced with our assembling here, 
by the introduction of, in ray judgment, the irrelevant resolution of the 
gentleman from Missouri, [iMr. Clark;] and it has insisted that there 
should be no organization of this House by the election as Speaker ot any 
one of those who recommended the circulation of that pamphlet. How- 
ever much, therefore, I may have heretofore, or may now oppose many ol 
the doctrines advocated in the Herald, I "cannot withhold from that papei 
the credit which it deserves for the complete control which it has over th( 
Administration, foreshadowing and directing, not only the policy of Mr 
Buchanan and his Cabinet, but the course to be pursued by the member; 
who sustain him upon this floor : and all this, too, notwithstanding its 
fierce opposition to Mr. Buchanan in 1856, and the support it then yieldec 
to Mr. Fremont and the Republican party. 

I desire, Mr. Clerk, in order that the House may understand th( 
character of the charges made by the home organ of the President, tha 
you will read the following article from the Constitution : 

[Mr. Haskin sent up to the Clerk an editorial article of over a column in length from th 
Washington Constitution of Saturday last, 9th inst., the whole of which was read to th 
House. °This article charges the eight anti-Lecompton Democrats withheing " mercenaries, 
and Messrs. Haskin and Hiclcman with having entered into a combination to iecure th 
ttUction of Col. Forney as Clerk, and Mr. Sherman as Speaker.] 

Mr HASKIN. Now, Mr. Clerk, for the charges contained in thf 

j^i-ticle— evidently published "by authority." The first is, that the eigi 

independent anti-Lecompton Democrats upon this floor are mercenarie 

In answer to this, let me say that no one in the country knows better tha 

Mr. Buchanan himself^ the utter falsehood of this charge ; /or he ei 

deavored by threats and by the seductions of his patronage, without effec 

to draw true men away from the path of duty. The second is, that the 

is a corrupt bargain between the Black Republicans, so-called and t 

distin^ruishfcd gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Hickman] atid myse 

I cmpliatically and indignantly deny this charge. The third declares th 

[ WIS false to my pledges when I was elected to the Ihirty-J^itthCo 

gress. During the campaign, in 1856, which resulted in my election, 

made as many speeches as probably any other candidate upon the stum 

and in each of them I insisted before my people, that, if elected to Co 

cress I would not vote for the admission of Kansas as a State into t 

Union unless I was satisfied that the constitution under which she appli 

had been fairly submitted, and fully and fairly ratified by the popul 

vote I then declared that I had no compunctions of conscience for 

a^ai'nst the admission of a slave State ; but that, inasmuch as by the co 

p?omi^e measures of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska bill of lb54, C( 

gross had determined upon the doctrine of nonintervention in the alia 

Sf the Territories, in order to localize the question of slavery, and iec 

it to be decided by the people there, as are other domestic institutions 

stood by that settlement of this exciting question. For that feasor 

obiect to the introduction of the resolution of the gentleman troni jy 



hold of this Congress, and before this House has organized by the elec- 
tion of its proper officers, and which unnecessarily excites the country 
throughout its length and breadth. Well, sir ; in pursuance of ray pledges, 
and in the performance of my duty as. a Representative of the people — 
free from the control and dictation of the Executive — I did, during 
the last Congress, do all in my power to prevent the admission of Kansas, 
under a constitution which every member upon this floor will now con- 
cede in no way reflected the will of the majority; but, on the contrary, was 
the emanation from a small minority of the people of that Territory. I, 
therefore, deny the charge that I have not lived up to all the pledges that 
I made in 1856. 

Another charge is, that I was actuated in my course during the last 
Congress toward the Administration by motives of revenge, for the reason 
that the President had refused to allow me the control of certain Federal 
patronage. I reply to the President himself, for I judge that this charge was 
made by his consent and approbation, that I never asked him for the ap- 
pointment of a single man to office ; and that about the only persons I re- 
commended, if I remember rightly, were those whose claims my Demo- 
cratic colleagues likewise recommended and supported, most of whom 
Vv-ere appointed. The President must know that the motive which actuated 
this charge is as malicious as the charge itself is infamous and void of 
truth. 

It is also charged, Mr. Clerk, that I undertook an investigation at the 
last Congress which resulted in my discomfiture. I did commence an in- 
vestigation, under a resolution of the last Congress, into the sale and pur- 
chase by the Government, inl857, of a property upon Long Island Sound, 
opposite my district, known as Willett's Point, for fortification purposes. 
Now, for the results, in brief, of that investigation as detailed in the proof 
before the committee and the reports made to this House. It was proved 
that the Secretary of War purchased this property for $200,000, when 
the appropriation therefor was but §150,000; and that in this he trans- 
cended the power given him to the extent of $50,000. Now, Mr. Clerk, 
if the Secretary of War could usurp the rights of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, which has, under the Constitution, the power to originate all 
bills of supply, and the rights of Congress, and exceed an appropriatioi 
to the amount of $50,000, he certainly could to the amount of $5,000,000, 
or even, sir, to the extent of burdening this country by the debt of Eng- 
land, which now almost strangles her commerce and her industry. Thi» 
was an important discovery of itself, as it showed an unlawful expendi- 
ture of the public money ; but it was outside of the corruptions which I 
maintain were incident to the transaction, and which would have war- 
ranted Congress in placing its seal of reprobation upon the extravagance 
and illegal conduct of the Secretary of War. In addition to the fact 
that the Secretary of War went beyond the appropriation, it was proved 
that for this property there was paid $150,000 more than it could have 
been purchased for a few months previously ; and that the broker 
and personal friend of the Secretary of War, who loaned the money 
with which this property was purchased by the person who sold it to 
the Government, and who at the time was discounting the notes of tho 
Secretary to the amount of from ten to twenty thousand dollars, destroyed 
his check books for the purpose of preventing the ascertainment of facts 



which would, in my opinion, have shown the complicity of the Secretary 
of War and his particular friends in this improper transaction. 

Another charge is, that, in 1858, I proceeded home from here and called 
myself a Democrat — " a Jeffersonian Democrat." It is true that I went 
home in June, 1858, and called a meeting of the independent people of 
my district, and allowed my name to be proposed for re-election. I asked 
them to approve my whole course in Congress, as well in reference to the 
Willett's Point investigation as to my opposition to the territorial policy 
of the Administration, I submitted it to the electors of my county, who 
reside opposite the property known as the Willett's Point purchase, whether 
I should be sustained on the charges I had made, and the proof I had 
elicited. What was the verdict ? Westchester county, good, honest old 
Westchester, around which clusters as many revolutionary reminiscences 
as has any county in the Union, came forward, and, by a majority of one 
thousand and twenty-two, sustained me over the President's candidate, 
Gouverneur Kemble, who the President informed me he had done all in 
his power to nominate and elect, while, at the same time, it gave the 
Democratic candidate for Governor, Mr. Parker, over twelve hundred 
ninjority. If majorities speak intelligently, and in this case I know they 
do, the fact I state is a sufficient refutation of the charge that the investiga- 
tion into the sale and purchase of the Willett's Point property had no result. 

I plead guilty to the accusation that I announced myself a Democrat 
upon my return home. I proclaim here that I am a Democrat, a Democrat 
in essence, in substance, and not in mere form. Democracy, according to 
m}' teaching, is the rule of the people undef the law ; and, let me say to 
the Administration, that, by its influence and power of patronage, it denied 
the right of itie people to judge for themselves when it urged the adoption 
of the Lecompton constitution. It was in reference to the admission of 
Kansas into the Union as a State, and the protection of the rights of the 
people of that Territory, that I declared here that the anti-Lecompton 
men were Democrats. I made this declaration in opposition to the Federa' " 
doctrines to which Mr. Buchanan has in his old age returned, and under 
which he sought to force, with Federal power and patronage, a State into 
the Union with a constitution repugnant to its people, and in defiance ot 
the protest of its Legislature. This was an unsuccessful attempt, it would 
appear, to gratify the South by the introduction of another slave State 
and the addition to their political power of two Senators. 

And, Mr. Clerk, just here I will say a word or two in reply to the 
remarks made by the distinguished and courteous gentleman from Vir- 
ginia, [Mr. SiMiTir,] who in his colloquy with my colleague, [Mr. Clark,] 
stated that he determined his Democracy by his vote upon the Democratic 
caucus nominee. I take issue with him. With me, organization, espe- 
cially under this Administration, is an instrument of tyranny and proscrip- 
tion. Whoever is the Speaker, it is within the power of a majority of this 
House to control his action. Yet sometimes the Speaker has abused the 
discretion intrusted to his hands. There was a memorable instance in the 
last session. After days of conflict, the House, by deliberate vote, in 
response to the unmistakable wish of the country, determined that there 
should be an investigation into the affairs in Kansas, but the Speaker, 
with whom the discretion was left to appoint the committee, in my judg- 
ment, selected, contrary to all parliamentary precedent, a majority of that 



committee from the enemies of that investifration, and from those who had 
upon the record solemnly voted against it, so that all inquiry was effec- 
tually defeated. I deny that organization here is the test of my Democracy, 
or of that of any man in this land. The only body I recognize as capable, 
in a party sense, of declaring the principles which are to guide me as a 
Democrat is the national Democratic convention. I recognize the resolu- 
tions and platform of the last national Democratic convention which assem- 
bled at Cincinnati, in 1856. 1 hold that those resolutions embody the 
precepts of our faith. No congressional caucus, and no Administration 
party vote upon the floor of this House, upon any measure which the 
President may recommend, can unmake my Democracy or force me to for- 
sake the pledges I made, in 1856, to support the Cincinnati platform. 
Adhesion to congressional caucuses, we knov/, has for years been an ex- 
ploded idea. I insist, whenever an organization deserts the principles 
upon which its representatives were elected, it acts treasonably toward the 
party, and is not deserving of respect. For example : s"uppose I were a 
Presbyterian, and the minister of my church should, from the pulpit, 
begin to preach the diabolical doctrines of the Thugs of India, would I be 
obliged to leave the Christian religion and follow him in his apostacy ? 
No, sir, I would continue to follow the cross of our Saviour, as I have 
continued to abide by the creed of our party pronounced at Cincinnati. 
The organization of the Democratic party must be subordinate to princi- 
ple, and not principle to organization ; and the doctrine that organization 
is paramount to principle is a political heresy that the people of the United 
States have rejected, and will indignantly reject in the future. I have 
been surprised, sir, to see strict constructionists of the South, and the 
gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Logan] especially, insisting with this effete 
Administration upon the infallibility of organization. 

I am accused in addition by The Constitution Avith having called upon 
my Black Republican friend Greeley, and having entered into an arrange- 
ment by which he was to yield me his support. I assert, in respect to 
this gentleman that, until after the adjournment of the first session of the 
Thirty-fifth Congress, I never corresponded or spoke with him. His 
paper ^"severtheless sustained my course during the whole of my opposition 
to the Lecompton policy of the Administration, as it had also generously 
and ably sustained the course of Judge Douglas on that question. I 
never had any understanding with him in my life. He came to my sup- 
port, as he came to the support of Mr. Davis of Indiana, Messrs. Adrain 
and RiGGS of New Jersey, Messrs. Hickman and ScinfARXZ of Pennsyl- 
vania, and Messrs. Clark and Reynolds of New York, and to the sup- 
port of Mr. McKibbin, who warred so bravely for principle in California, 
but who had at last to yield before the myriads of office-holders in that 
State. He came to our support, not that he expected us to act with his 
party in the future, but to justify and sustain each one of us for acting 
like honest men in vindicating the pledges upon which we had been elected. 
lam not one of those who feel insensible to the able and the patriotic support 
which the New York Tribune gave to OMch of us in the eventful contest of 
1858. Mr. Greely is my constituent, and although I differ with him in princi- 
ple, yet from my knowledge of the man, I take pride in saying upon this floor 
that he is undoubtedly honest in his views, and that, wherever he is known, 
uo man questions his sincerity or his veracity. lie supported me knowing 



me to be a Democrat and with a full knowledge of my views in favor of 
popular sovereignty, as explained by Judge Douglas in his interpretation 
of tlie Kansas-Nebraska bill, and as enunciated by the President himself 
i» his letter of acceptance, where he declared that the people of a Terri- 
tory, like those of a State, should decide the question of their domestic 
institutions for themselves. Each and every one of the gentlemen Avho 
have been abused and stigmatized as mercenaries by the home organ of 
the President, were supported by the Tribune for election, oi- re-election, 
upon the same ground that it sustained me, with a full knowledge that 
they differed with Mr. Greeley in respect to congressional intervention 
for the prohibition of slavery in the Territories, as they differed with 
southern gentlemen who favored congressional intervention for the pro- 
tection of slavery in the Territories. 

The Constitution further alleges that I am for the election of Colonel 
John W. Forney, of Pennsylvania, to the Clerkship of this House, to 
seeure which a bargain has been entered into between his friends and the 
Republicans. I deny this combination, M'hilst I confess that I am the 
friend of Colonel Forney for Clerk. There is no man throughout the 
length and breadth of this country whose election would more completely 
rebuke this Administration for its departure from Democratic principles, 
its treachery to pledges made in 1866, its extravagance, its proscriptions, 
and the virulence of its federalism, than that of Colonel John W. Forney. 
I am for his election, because it would be the vindication by the people of 
an honest statesman against the arrogance and tyranny of an Adminis- 
tration of which he Avas the Warwick. In him we have beheld one, who 
as an editor, has sustained each and all of us as independent Democrats, 
in our districts ; and who, as an orator of signal power, has carried con- 
viction by the force of his reason and his eloquence. I remember that he 
went into the district of my colleague, [Mr. Clark,] and there made a 
speech in his support, which was both brilliant and effective. I cannot 
forget that he was, upon several occasions, in the districts of my friends 
from New Jersey [Messrs. Adrain and Riggs] doing good service in their 
behalf. I would not, if I could, forget that he did the same thing for me 
in my district, at Tarry town; and that in Pennsylvania, he was in the 
districts of Messrs. Schwartz and Hickman, battling nobly and success- 
fully for the right. # 

And, sir, let me call the attention of the House to the fact that he, 
more than any other man, gave the State of Pennsylvania to Mr. Bu- 
chanan in 185G; and that, he, in 1858, more than all other men combined, 
placed the seal of condemnation of that old Commonwealth upon James 
Buchanan, its once favorite son, by a majority of over seventy thousand 
of the popular vote, as shown in the election of Representatives to Con- 
gress now on this floor. For these eminent services, rendered in a 
righteous cause, not referring to his extraordinary capabilities for the 
position which he has already honorably held, I plead guilty to the charge 
that it is nearest my heart, in the organization of this House, to see Col. 
Forney selected as its Clerk. 

Now, sir, for the gist of this article, which is an attempted defense of 
the Administration from the effect of my charges in the debate between 
the distinguished gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Logan] and myself. I 
then charged that it had been extravagant and corrupt. The Adminis- 



tration organ denies the charge, and challenges me to the proof. When 
this becomes an organized House, I trust that among the first things done 
will be the selection of investigating committees to expose to the country 
still further grounds for that charge than those Avhich have been already 
published. This is no time or place to get to that work. Let me say, 
generally, that when this Administration came into power, there was in 
the Trea'^sury a surplus of about twenty million dollars, and that notwith- 
standinsr that, we were asked at the assembling of the first session of the 
Thirty-Fifth Congress to vote $20,000,000 in Treasury notes, in order 
that the Government might be carried on. At the session following we 
were asked to vote another $20,000,000. The expense of this Adminis- 
tration of the Government for the last fiscal year was about eighty mil- 
lion dollars, one-third larger than under any previous Administration. 
Staring us in the face is the startling fact that in two^ years the War De- 
partment alone has asked appropriations exceeding in amount w^hat was 
required by that Department, when under Mr. Marcy, during the Mexican 
war. No corruption, Mr. Clerk, in the sale of the Fort Snelling property 
for, I- think, $90,000, at the time Avhen it was generally believed to be 
worth $200,000 ! That property, we know, went into the hands of the 
immediate and confidential friends of the Secretary of War. No corrup- 
tion in the purchase of land for fortification purposes, at New Bedford, 
for which sixty-eight or seventy thousand dollars were pai(^, when it could 
have been obtained a short time before for one-fourth of that amount! 
That property was purchased just previous to its sale to the government 
by the friends of the Secretary of War, and by them sold to the United. 
States. No corruption in the Utah war contracts for the transportation 
of supplies to the Army ! No corruption in the mule contracts ! No cor- 
ruption in the purchase of extravagantly high-priced ships for the useless 
expedition to Taraguiy, an expedition which has cost the Government 
millions, and resulted in rendering it ridiculous forever ! No corruption 
in the division of the coal agency, made, I believe, for the purpose of 
returning the President's favorite, J. Glancy Jones, from Berks county, 
against the old Jackson Democrat who sits near me, [Mr. Schwartz,] 
and in the face of an r.utraged and indignant constituency ! No corrup- 
tion in the bo?«;owal of the printing of the Post Office blanks, as has been 
charged, And I believe nowhere denied ! No corruption there, where it is 
alleged tlfe contract was given to Mr. Rice, of the Philadelphia Pennsyl- 
vanian, with a view of supporting that paper, and the Union, alias the 
Constitution, as well as the Evening Argus, of Philadelphia !^ No corrup- 
tion in the employment of extra hands in immense numbers in the Phila- 
delphia and Brooklyn navy-yards just prior to the elections, and their 
dismissal immediately afterward ! Why, sir, it is well known throughout 
the North that this has been the most extravagant and corrupt adminis- 
tration of Government which the world has seen since the days of Wal- 
pole. So glaring were these extravagancies and corruptions, that during 
the last Congress, in Avhich the Democrats had a working majority, the 
power was taken from the Secretary of War, after mature deliberation, to 
sell the Government reservations, and from the Secretary of the Navy the 
power of appointing agents for the purchase of coal for the Navy, and 
throwing coal supplies open to the lowest bidder by contract ! If the Ad- 
ministration members will permit a speedy organization of this House, these 



10 

matters can be all looked into, I know, with beneficial results to the 
country. 

Having thus replied to the specific charges contained in the Constitu- 
tion, permit me now to briefly give to the House my views in rehition to 
its proceedings since the Clerk called the roll on Monday last. We were 
elected to organize this body, and to proceed with the legitimate business 
of the country. The adjournment of the Thirty-Fifth Congiess without 
the passage of the appropriation bill for the support of the Post Office 
Department, has compelled that Department to proceed with the postal 
arrangements of the country, without money to pay for them, and under 
contracts based upon the honor of this Government to promptly meet them 
on the assembling of the present Congress. The contractors under this 
Department since Monday last have been suffering for the lack of means 
with which to supply their wants, and to perform their engagements. 
The Administration, through its representatives upon this floor, immedi- 
ately upon the roll being called, commenced here an agitation upon the 
negro question by the introduction of the resolution of the gentleman from 
Missouri. This subject might have been considered with order and decorum, 
when the House organized ; and it is, in my opinion, clearly out of place at 
present, under the circumstances surrounding us. So far as the resolution 
is concerned, I would suggest that it would have been just as fair and proper 
for me, or any other member, to have offered a resolution, provided John 
Letcher, the present Governor elect of Virginia, had been a member of this 
House and the candidate of the Administration for Speaker, proclaiming 
that, inasmuch as he once, in a letter to Mr. Hufner, declared that slavery 
was a " a social and political evil," he was, therefore, unfit to be the 
Speaker of this House. Sir, that resolution had nothing legitimately to 
do with the business of the country, or of this House. As well might a 
resolution have been introduced that, because somebody signed a circular, 
favoring the use of Mrs. Pease's hoarhound candy, as Clay and Webster 
once did, therefore, such a recommendation unfitted the person so recom- 
mending it for becoming Speaker. Its introduction has aroused feelings 
in this House which should never have been called up here, and scenes 
have been witnessed upon the floor which have disgraced this deliberative 
body in the eyes of the whole country, and of the civilized world. 

Mr. Clerk, I have heard upwards of a dozen speeches already from 
gentlemen of the South, proclaiming secession doctrines, in certain con- 
tingencies, which doctrines have been applauded by the galleries, in this 
southern city, where large numbers of the men who daily fill them re- 
side — the employes and recipients of Government money. They are, it 
seems, paid the people's money to appear here and insult their Eepresen- 
tatives. The members from the free States have come here, expecting to 
enjoy the hospitality for which the South has alwas been celebrated, and 
not such treatment as this. I have not heard from this side one single 
speech or sentiment which has not breathed devotion to the Constitution 
and the Union, and a determination to faithfull}^ maintain and protect the 
South in all of her constitutional rights. I was pleased, on Saturday 
last, when the gentleman from South Carolina, [Mr. Miles] announced 
his devotion to his own State, and proclaimed that, in that sense, he was a 
sectional man. In the same sense, I proclaim my devotion to the great 
interests of New Yo)k, the Empire State of the Union, whose commerce 



11 

penetrates every part of the world. I am proud to avow on this floor 
that I am a northern man ; but as a northern man, it is ray desire to stand 
up here and proclaim that I am a brother of the southern man. This is a 
compact between coequal States, and I am in favor of respecting and pro- 
tecting the local laws, and of sustaining each State in all its constitu- 
tionarpriviloges in this House. I heard, with the blood tingling through 
my veins, the patriotic speech of the gentleman from Tennessee, [Mr. 
Nelson,] in which he offered his devotion to the Union. In common with 
him, the Representatives from the free States do the same tbing ; but it 
must not be expected that we will sit here and listen to the gentlemen on 
this floor charge aggression on the part of the North, without stating that 
it has its rights to be maintained, as well as the rights of the South. 
I cannot forget that out of the taxation received by the Government, 
three-fourths of the expenses of the postal service of the country are paid 
by the people of the free St-ites. I cannot forget that over one-half of 
the patronage of this Government is concentrated among inhabitants and 
citizens of southern States. I cannot forget that the Army and Navy 
have had more than their just quota of representatives from the southern 
States. Yet I do not complain, although, the other day, I heard the gen- 
tleman from Mississippi [Mr. Davis] proclaim that they would hang all of 
us North Avho Avere suspected of want of devotion to southern interests, 
and take possession of the Army and Navy. To that I say, "Who is 
afraid ?" Would it not have been in better taste to have said the Army 
and Navy should be used, if necessary, for the purpose of preserving the 
Union and sustaining the principles which underlie its foundation ? Would 
it not have been better to have insisted that, in case of an invasion of Vir- 
ginia by fanatics from the North, the East, or the^West, that the Army 
should be called out by the Executive to crush it, and that the same power 
should be exerted in case of an invasion from the South, or any other sec- 
tion into a northern State ? These violent denunciations, threatening us 
of the North, who have the numerical strength, are productive of preju- 
dice, and are creating feelings which, I fear, may not be allayed. 

Sir, when I heard the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Crawford] assert, 
several days ago, in substance, that he was not in favor of any more 
Castle Garden Union-saving meetings for the purpose of protecting 
the rights of the South, I felt gratified. We have had recent exhibi- 
tions of this kind in Philadelphia and Boston. It is not those who get 
up such meetings who will defend your rights, gentlemen of the South, in 
the North. The South itself is capable ^nd must vindicate its own rights, 
joined by the whole conservative body of the North, with which I rank 
myself as ready on any legitimate occasion to take up arms to protect her. 
Sir, those Union meetings are too frequently controlled by scheming poli- 
ticians and selfish merchants. It is one of the clap-trap schemes of the 
dav for advertising men and merchandise, and many who engage in them 
know less of the constitutional questions arising in this body and the gen- 
eral politics of the country than the mechanics and laboring men through- 
out the free States. If you rely upon them, you rely on the sordid inter- 
ests of men — of those who will not do what the conservative body of the 
people from the rural districts from which I come would do in case of ne- 
cessity. 

Mr. Clerk, let me indulge in a few words in relation to this reckless 



12 

raid of old John Brown. I do not believe that there are one thousand 
men in all the free States who justify his act of treason. The people of 
the North desired to see the laws of the country executed, and I heard no 
one object to hanging him. There were, however, many who admired his 
deportment from the time of his arrest to the time of his execution, and 
the bravery with which he met his final end. Some sympathy may have 
been felt for the man, but none for his act. And here I would ask, 
whether there are not men in the South who are accountable for setting 
bad examples. I allude to those who last Congress justified General 
Walker and his men in their invasion of Nicaragua, a country with which 
we Avere then at peace. Do gentlemen upon the other side of the House 
justify those who met in southern convention and proclaimed themselves 
in favor of reopening the African slave trade, in opposition to the com- 
promises of the Constitution ? Do gentlemen upon the other side justify 
the landing of a cargo of slaves, by the Wanderer, upon the southern 
coast of the United States — an act which set at defiance the law declar- 
ing the slave trade piracy ? While there are gentlemen South entertain- 
ing such extreme views, is it to be wondered at, considering the numerical 
superiority of the North, that there should be found fanatics there? 
Transplant Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, Parker Pills- 
bury, and such men. South, and you would make them fire-eaters, and take 
the fire-eaters of the South into Massachusetts, and very likely they would 
prove fanatics against slavery. We of the anti-Lecompton legion, to- 
gether Avith the patriotic South Americans, who were with us last Con- 
gress in our struggle, are against the extremists of both sections of the 
Confederacy. We design to maintain the Constitution and the laws as 
they have been handed down to us by our fathers. 

Now, a word or twc^in relation to the party position 1 occupy, speaking 
for myself. I have been re-elected to this Congress as an independent 
man. There are eight of us, all told, who can say the same thing, viz: 
John G. Davis of Indiana, Major Schwartz <ind John Hickman of 
Pennsylvania; Messrs. Adeain and RiGGS of New Jersey; and Messrs. 
Clark, Reynolds, and myself, of New York. Each and all of us were 
elected over organization, especially over the Administration organization, 
in our districts. We come here, if I may be permitted to speak for all of 
us, occupying positions in this Congress similar to those occupied by Roe- 
buck, Hume, Bright, and Milner Gibson, in the British Parliament; who, 
when the Government is right, vote with it, and when it is wrong, vote 
against it. This is our position, so far as this Administration is con- 
cerned. We are conservative nfen, desirous of representing our constit- 
uencies to the full extent of our ability, and at the same time feeling that, 
elected as we have been, we are — 

■■" pledged to no party's arbitrary sway, 
But follow truth where'er it leads the way." 

The difference between the anti-Lecompton men of this House and the 
Republicans is upon the vital question before the country — the territorial 
policy of the Administration. The Republicans, in their party platform, 
insist upon congressional intervention to prohibit the extension of the do- 
mestic institution of slavery into the Territories. That was the doctrine 
of John Van Buren and all those who supported the Buffalo platform of 



15 

1848. Many southern men are now advocating congressional intervention 
to protect the domestic institution of slavery in the Territories. The anti- 
Lecomptonites take the middle and sound Democratic ground of legitimate 
popular sovereignty in the organized Territories of the Union. They 
insist that, by the legislation of 1850, when the Republicans opposed the 
extension of the Missouri line to the Pacific, and by the legislation of 
1854, in the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, it was designed that 
Congress should not intervene for or against slavery ; but that the people of 
the Territories, through their Legislatures, or through their constitutional 
conventions, might pass upon this question, as upon all others of domestic 
concernment. There is a direct antagonism between us and the Republi- 
cans upon that question ; and there is also a direct antagonism between us 
and certain southern gentlemen upon that question. Notwithstanding 
this, it is a fact to be commended, that the Republicans, at the last session, 
with a practical good sense for which they deserve to be commended, put 
themselves, by their votes, squarely upon the doctrine of popular sov- 
ereignty, as contained in the Crittenden-Montgomery bill, and acted with 
the anti-Lccomptonites in exposing the corruption and extravagance of the 
Administration, as did also some of those patriotic gentlemen known as 
southern Americans. There is more sympathy between us than I can 
feel for the Administration men, who opposed us in everything during the 
last Congress; and I am therefore, if necessary, willing to join the gen- 
eral opposition to the policy and measures of this Administration, in the 
past as well as the future, in the speedy organization of this House, so 
that the legitimate business of the country may be proceeded wnh. 

A word or two, Mr. Clerk, in relation to the proscriptions of this Ad- 
ministration, and its opposition to the Democracy of Illinois, and the in- 
dependent Democrats outside of that State on this floor, and I conclude. 
I desire that the country shall understand that I approve the principles of 
Judge Douglas. I sustained him throughout his gallant fight during the 
whole of the last Congress against the territorial policy of this Adminis- 
tration, and I sympathize with him now in the position which he occupies 
in his own State, acting there within the regular forms of the organiza- 
tion. I can safely assert that he has sympathized with and justified the in- 
dependent Democrats who have been elected to this House for the course 
which they pursued in their several districts. I say this because the Ad- 
ministration in his own State set the example of disorganization by the 
repudiation of the regular candidates of the party, and the running of 
stump candidates against them, putting Black Republicans, so called, in 
office, and removing from office all men who sympathized with Judge 
Douglas. Recognizing, as I do, State sovereignty in the affairs of poli- 
tics, I claim the right to insist upon a proper amount of respect to district 
sovereignty, which, through the will of the majority of the people, elected 
each of us anti-Lecompton Democrats to this House. The most of us rep- 
resent three elements of the political parties of the day — the Republican, 
the American, and the anti-Lecompton Democratic element. We could not 
forget if we would the respect which is due to each of these elements for 
coming to our support, and sustaining us against the proscriptions of the fed- 
eral power; and we could not, or at least I could not, stultify myself by 
voting upon the organization of this House for an Administration candi- 
date for the Speakership, to whose election I am satisfied a majority of mj 



1-1 

constituents ai-e opposed. Self-respect, if no other consideration, will pre- 
vent me assisting to elect an Administration candidate for Speaker of 
this House. I desire to be thus explicit, because the country should 
know the position of each of us independent men upon this floor. 

In conclusion, Mr. Clerk, let me say that it is susceptible of the clearest 
proof that Mr. Buchanan is responsible for the demoralization of the 
Democratic party, and the resuscitation of the Republican party. In the 
belief that his pledges of justice to the people of Kansas would be ful- 
filled, and that the people there, under the territorial organization 
given to tbera by Congress, should for themselves decide in reference 
to their own domestic institutions, succeeding the presidential election, 
the States of New York, Pennsylvania, Kew Jersey, and Indiana, 
elected Democratic State officers by triumphant majorities. At the 
Thirty-Fifth Congress, one hundred and twenty-eight members of Con- 
gress were returned to this House who voted for Mr. Orr as the Demo- 
cratic nominee for Speaker. Immediately Mr. Buchanan developed his 
territorial policy, forced Governor Walker to resign, and urged the accept- 
ance of the Lecompton constitution, then the Republican party lifted up 
its head, and the Democratic party, under the load put upon it by this 
Administration, went down into the dust before the indignation of an out- 
raged people. There are here, at this Thirty-Sixth Congress, one hun- 
dred and thirteen gentlemen claimed as Republicans, and there have been 
accessions from the South to the ranks of the Opposition to this Adminis- 
tration, and losses, of course, to the ranks of the latter ; and, sir, we have 
of late seen the Democratic conventions in the free States throwing over- 
board this Jonah, who, if kept in our midst, must sink our ship, and 
adopting platforms in direct antagonism to the territorial policy of this 
Administration. In most of them delegates have been chosen to Charles- 
ton in favor of Senator Douglas, the champion of popular sovereignty. 
All these things are attributable to the extravagance and faithlessness to 
pledges of this Administration ; and, sir, the Democratic party need not 
expect to succeed in 1860 unless it ignores this Administration altogether. 
i 

COLLOQUY BETWEEN HASKIN AND LOGAN. 

Mr. LOGAN. So far as the Democratic candidate for Speaker is con- 
cerned, I have never asked him a question, for God knows the subject 
never entered ni}'- mind. I came here to vote for whoever the Democratic 
party should put in nomination for Speaker. I have entire confidence in 
the impartiality of that gentleman who is the nominee of the Democratic 
party. I have confidence in him because he comes from the land of Wash- 
ington, Jefferson, Madison — from a land of patriots ; and I believe that 
no man coming from that land could act in such a manner as to infringe 
upon the rights of any portion of this Union. [Applause.] 

Mr. HASKIN. Will the gentleman permit me to put an interrogatory 
to him ? 

Mr. LOGAN. That is owing to its character. [Laughter,] 

Mr. HxVSKIN. The gentleman from Illinois has stated that he in- 
tended to support the nominee of the Charleston Convention. 

Mr. LOGAN. I have. 

Mr. HASKIN. If the Charleston Convention adopt a platform in op- 



15 

position to the views of Judge Douglas, as expressed in his essay, pub- 
lished in Harper's Magazine, and endorsing and approving the conduct 
of the Administration, as well upon, other matters as upon its Kansas 
policy, will the gentleman from Illinois then support the nominee of that 
Convention. 

Mr. LOGAN. I will answer the gentleman's question. I am now 
about twenty-eight years of age. I was born a Democrat, and all my 
life I have learned to believe that the Democratic party, in National Con- 
vention, never do wrong. [Applause and laughter from the Democratic 
benches and the galleries.] I have never known the Democratic party, 
in National Convention, to endorse a platform that was not consistent 
with my views. Having that confidence in the party, 1 do not go ahead, 
and I will not say what I will do. Having confidence in that Convention, 
I will vote for the nominee of that Convention. 

Mr. HASKIN. Anyhow ? 

Mr. LOGAN. Yes, sir. 

Mr. HASKIN. I will not. Does the gentleman believe with the dis- 
tinguished Senator from Illinois, whose nomination he is desirous of se- 
curing from the Charleston Convention, and whom I sustained throughout 
his glorious fight against this Admiuistration, as well upon its Kansas 
policy as upon its startling corruptions, which, in the last House, I endea- 
vored to expose to the country — does the gentleman from Illinois believe 
with the Senator from his State that an organized Territorial Government, 
like that of Kansas, can exclude or abolish slavery from its borders? 

Mr. LOGAN. I will answer the gentleman's questions in this way. 

Mr. HASKIN. No dodging. Let us put ourselves squarely upon the 
record. 

^ Mr. LOGAN. I profess to be a Democrat. I do not recognise such a 
distinction as anti-Lecompton or Lecompton Democrat, but denominate 
all as Democrats. I have said already that I have buried past issues. I 
ha.ve done with them. Ignoring them, I say then that I am a Democrat 
without a prefix to my name. I am for Stephen A. Douglas for the next 
President of the United States — first, last, and all the time. If he is not 
nominated, I am for the next man — that is, sir, the man who is nominated. 
[Applause and laughter.] 

Mr. HASKIN. If the Charleston Convention adopt a resolution in its 
platform that Congress shall protect slave property in the organized Ter- 
ritories of the United States where the people are opposed to it, will Ihe 
gentleman from Illinois then support the nominees of that Convention ? 

Mr. LOGAN, Let me say to my friend from New York to wait untill 
the Democratic platform is adopted. When it is adopted, and we have 
seen it, is the time to say what we will do. Let us meet and embrace 
one another as brothers. Let us come together, strike hands, and bury 
past difierences. Let us meet upon a common platform. Let us be united 
in our action to defeat the Republicans and to elect a Democratic Speaker. 
[Applause.] 

Mr. HASKIN. Let me, in reply to that proposition, say a few words. 
At the last session of Congress, the Republican members of this 
House put themselves squarely upon the anti-Lecompton platform — 
the sanie platf^Drm^which Judge Douglas supported. By voting for the 
Crittenden-|loi\'^g§fjtoerj^ bill, they gave up their antiquated doctrine gf no 



16 

more slave States. I am one of those, sir, who came here, into this hall 
from an independent constituency. I came here with no party collar upoi 
my neck. Nor, sir, am I a believer in the doctrine that if my en^i 
smite me upon the right cheek that I shall turn ray left to him to be hgaii 
struck. [Applause upon the floor and in the galleries.] I am, ^nd hj)/^ 
been, in favor of the speedy organization, of this House. lam, and hav 
been, opposed to the rambling debate that has been going on for days 
And, Mr. Clerk, let me say that I hold in abhorrence the appeals mad 
to me by gentlemen of the other side — to me, an independent anti-Le 
compton Democrat, to come to the support of the infamous policy of thii 
Administration in reference to the admission of Kansas, by supporting 
Lecompton Administration Democrat for the Speaker. [Applause upoi 
the floor and in the galleries.] For myself, I will never vote in thi 
House for any man for Speaker who voted for the Lecompton policy o 
this administration, or who approves of its proscriptions and corrupt ac 
tion ; [renewed applause;] nor will I vote for any man who sustains it 
party proscriptions in Illinois, about which the gentlemen upon the floo 
from that State must certainly know something. 

A Member. Will the gentleman vote for a Rispublican ? 

Mr. HASKIN. I will vote for any gentleman from this side of thi 
House who comes nearer to my platform than the gentlemen of the othei 
side who voted for the Lecompton policy of this Administration. [Ap 
plause.] I came here determined to do all within my power to proven 
the organization of this House by the election of an Administration can 
didate. [Renewed applause.] Is that explicit enough ? 

Mr. LOGAN. Yes, sir. All I have to say in reply is, that I carai 
here as a Democrat, and I expect to support a Democrat. I may hav^ 
diff'ered with gentlemen upon this side of the House in reference to issue 
that are passed; but God knows that I have diff'ered from the other sidi 
from my childhood, and with that side I will never affiliate as long as '. 
have breath in my body. [Applause.] 

Mr. HASKIN. I will say to the gentleman from Illinois and th( 
House that, if this side of the House affiliate with me and the anti-Le 
comption Democrats, I will be most happy to receive their support anc 
affiliation. 

Mr. BARKSDALE. The gentleman has left the Democratic party fo 
the party's good, and we are glad to be rid of him. 

Mr. HASKIN. I am not under any obligation to the Administratior 
party of this House. As an independent Representative in the last Con 
gress, my action has been approved by my constituency. I was elected ove: 
the Administration candidate who ran against me. If the Republicar 
party will put itself upon the popular-sovereignty platform ; if it will couk 
to the conclusion that the Legislative Assembly of a Territory can abolisl 
slavery, as Judge Douglas has proclaimed it can in his Harper s Essay 
if it will go to work and expose to the country, as I hope it will upon th( 
organization of the House, the infamous extravagance and the gross cor 
ruption of the Administration ; if it will put itself upon our platform, ther 
I would sooner co-operate with that party than with those who have, foi 
the first time in the history of,the country, raised an issue upon a frauda 
lent Constitution and endeavored to force a slav^tate^jnto the Unior 
under it. [Applause.] *' W40 
















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